Brett Hetherington's Blog: "First thought:" My Substack page, page 15

Joan Subirats: Cities are spaces where things can change for better (int...

"A radical change is taking place. Cities around Europe – through platforms, movements and international networks – are creating paths for citizens to participate in and influence politics directly. Joan Subirats, one of the founders of Barcelona’s municipalist platform Barcelona en Comú, discusses how cities can deal with uncertainty and provide a new type of protection, reverse the trend of tech giants owning all our data, and even defy their nation-states on issues such as refugees."

Working Women Week: Barcelona June 14 - June 18 2021

 

"This first edition of WWW, organized by Barcelona Expat Life, Barcelona Metropolitan, Planet Venus and Professional Women’s Network Barcelona, will be held from the 14th to the 18th of June and will consist of a series of hybrid (online and offline) events, workshops, exhibitions and round tables carried out by experts in their fields.

WWW has been born with the principal aim of connecting multiple organizations to exchange experiences, give support and disseminate knowledge on a variety of topics within the fields of diversity, gender balanced leadership and female empowerment.

A further objective is to connect working women with each other, create empowering synergies and enrich them with the different perspectives and resources provided by selected leading organizations, companies or individuals based in Barcelona and Catalonia.

GENDER EQUALITY
DIVERSITY
FEMALE EMPOWERMENT
LEADERSHIP
EDUCATION & RESOURCES "
For more info see here.

"Backlash for Spain's postal service anti-racist campaign"

Backlash for Spain's postal service anti-racist campaign - YouTube

"Spain's postal service is feeling a backlash from its attempt to highlight racial inequality after releasing four stamps of different skin colour and different values."

Maybe if they'd consulted with people of colour before the campaign it could have all been different...

"Needled" – My latest opinion column for Catalonia Today magazine

[Photo: Oriol Duran, Barcelona.]
You could call me one of the lucky ones; one of the chosen few.

A week ago, I had my second dose of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at Bellvitge Hospital in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat just outside Barcelona. 
This was the same medical centre that successfully operated on me to transplant a kidney 3 years ago, giving the reason for why I stood in line on a Friday evening with mainly 70 year old’s, some of whom undoubtedly have malfunctioning immune systems, as I do.

I’m in this category because since the campaign started in Catalonia on December 27 last year, at the time of writing, 1,572,518 residents had been given the first dose of the various vaccines. 
That represents just 20.36% of the total population. Of these, just over half a million people have also been administered the second dose (6.49% of the populace).  

Naturally, I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I don’t want to sound at all petty. I’m one of the biggest supporters of public health systems anywhere on this planet of marvels and mysteries. 
It just strikes me as disappointing that organisation from the EU, Spain and our government here wasn’t better. It disturbs me. 
You could say, in another meaning of the word, it needles me. 
There are even large numbers of school teachers (for example, my wife who’s in her mid-50s) who have not yet had their Covid protection maximised with a simple injection.

I accept that some causes for delays have been outside local authorities’ control. One case in point was the closure of the Eurotunnel in the English Channel just before Christmas. 
Reportedly, the main reason for the slow vaccine rollout speed in Catalonia was fridges (used to store doses) being trapped in Dover, one of England’s main ports.

Of course, that was 4 months ago now. And yes, I know there are plans to quicken the pace so that 70% of the population have been covered by the end of August. Plans don’t impress me. Well-coordinated action does.

There are other parts of the world that have done this task much more efficiently. Unsurprisingly maybe, places like Australia and New Zealand who’ve had relatively few cases of Covid have also already begun vaccination programs. 
Even that obscenely corrupt, malfunctioning corporation called the United Kingdom is looking pretty flash on this question.

While I’m all riled up, I’ll mention another related point. Now that it seems agreed that there’s going to be some kind of special travel “passport” for the pre-vaccinated elite like me in Europe, I have to ask about what’s going to happen to everyone else in the next few months leading into and through the summer?

What about the opportunity to travel across borders (is it even a human right?) Children, young people, many immigrant adults and all those not lucky enough to be immunised are clearly going to be discriminated against.

And here's another crucial error. I was arguing from the very start of scientific investigation into a vaccine that it should be centrally run by the World Health Organisation and an enhanced European Medicines Agency. 
The pandemic was, and still is, much too dangerous and long-lasting to be handled by local governments as prisoners of private interests who make medicine for profit.
Surely, one single contract should have been given to the most effective vaccine company and the patent for that vaccine should have been waved in the interests of global public health.

But I suppose that wouldn’t have been a financial shot in the arm for the pharma giants, would it?
[This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, May 2021.]

"The quiet one" -- From an article I wrote for Catalonia Today magazine

[Photo: Lluís Serrat.]There he is. Sitting along the side of the class, with his head down. He could be a child or an adult -- and certainly female too -- but today at least this introvert has very little to say for himself.   
Familiar to most of us who spend any time in group situations at work or in a social setting, the introvert is not shy by definition. 
According to North American author (and self-acknowledged introvert) Susan Cain, shyness is actually about fear of being judged by others.
In fact, she argues, it’s just that “introverts feel at their most alive and their most switched-on and their most capable when they're in quieter, more low-key environments.” Extroverts -- their opposites -- are people who simply function better with a high level of social stimulation.
The wider point that Cain makes in her book on the subject is she believes that a bias has crept into “our most important institutions, our schools and our workplaces. They are designed mostly for extroverts and for extroverts' need for lots of stimulation. And also we have this belief system right now that I call the new groupthink, which holds that all creativity and all productivity comes from a very oddly gregarious place.”
Myself, as someone who does not fit neatly into either category of the out-going chatterbox or the silent internal type (but rather seem to flit between the two depending on the moment) I confess to having largely failed in my attempts to run a fully inclusive classroom. 
When I was a secondary teacher I tried to democratically involve all of my students in being vocal but (like many educators) I was unaware of how best to do this or that some teenagers just do not want to speak if it can be avoided.
Teaching adults over the last few years I’ve learned that the prevailing culture in this part of the world too is clearly in favour of extroverts. I have even taught in companies where they believe that they do not have any introverts working alongside them as their colleagues. 
In the endless rounds of group meetings and chatty open plan offices introverts often fade into the background. It is as if being introverted is a mark of shame and sets someone apart as “not a team player.”  
But there is no good reason for this to be the case. 
As Susan Cain discovered, “when it comes to leadership, introverts are routinely [ignored] for leadership positions, even though introverts tend to be very careful...and when psychologists look at the lives of the most creative people, what they find are people who are very good at exchanging ideas and advancing ideas, but who also have a serious streak of introversion in them.” 
She gives the examples of Charles Darwin, Steve Jobs and genius children’s author Dr Seuss.
Of course, extroverts can and do lead us the wrong way though. 
Cain notes that “groups famously follow the opinions of the most dominant or charismatic person in the room, even though there's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.”
For some reason, the name Donald Trump immediately comes to mind.

[This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, June 2017.]

"They took me to prison:" The nightmare of a young Italian woman at UK border after Brexit

[image error] Marta, 24, was supposed to work as an au pair in London but without a work visa, she was sent to the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre.

"They took me to prison; then I burst into tears..." [Dozens of EU citizens have reportedly suffered similarly.]
Read more from La Repubblica here.

New green oasis for Barcelona residents

[Photo: MataAlta]
"Terrats d'en Xifré is one of the initiatives promoted by the Barcelona City Council to further humanize the city.

It is a green space of 1,500 square meters with a garden that is located on the roof that connects six buildings between the neighbourhoods of Born and Ciutat Vella."
Read more from source at Barcelona Secreta here.

LAUNCH EVENT: Spanish-English edition of Clive James' poetry

A bilingual Spanish-English volume of Australian Clive James' poetry has just been published.

Title: "Fin de Fiesta. Últimos Poemas". (Publisher, Pre-Textos.) Launch: 4 May, 19.00h, @DocumentaBCN bookshop, Pau Claris, 144 Barcelona.
Reservations (Max. 20 people:) Email correu@documenta-bcn.com ... OR follow event on Instagram: @documentabcn

"50 years of Greenpeace" -- My interview with their spokesperson in Catalonia

 

                       [This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, April 2021.]

4th century Roman aqueduct and footbridge: Sant Jaume dels Domenys in Tarragona, Catalonia

 My photos from today's walk...

[image error]